At least 163 kidnapping victims, including children and women, were rescued earlier this month from the Kainji Lake National Park forest in Nigeria, following an attack on the village of Woro in February that killed at least 165 people and resulted in the abduction of scores of residents by suspected jihadists.
163 kidnapping victims rescued in Nigeria after six months in forest captivity
At least 163 kidnapping victims, including children and women, were rescued earlier this month from the Kainji Lake National Park forest in Nigeria, following an attack on the village of Woro in February that killed at least 165 people and resulted in the abduction of scores of residents by suspected jihadists.
The government described the total release of 308 people as the largest single-day rescue operation in the country. Survivors were taken to the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital in Ilorin, Kwara State, where Dr Ahmed Bola Abdulkadir, Chief Medical Director, said most patients presented with severe malnutrition, skin diseases, and some with fractures. Most were initially placed in the intensive care unit.
The victims were held at a camp along with more than 100 others abducted from additional villages, including Kasuwan Daji and Konkoso, both in Niger State. Survivors described conditions including severe hunger, beatings, being forced to bury those who died in captivity, and women giving birth in the forest without access to medical care. Abdulkadir said one or two women had delivered babies a day or two before the rescue.
Woro, located near the border with Benin, was attacked in February by suspected jihadists. Abductions have become a source of revenue for criminal groups in Nigeria, particularly among jihadist and non-ideological bandit groups operating across the north and centre of the country.
Nigeria has been confronting a jihadist insurgency centred in the north-east since 2009. That insurgency has been expanding into the north-west, a region already affected by a separate but overlapping crisis involving armed bandit gangs. Mass abductions and kidnappings for ransom are described as a major security issue in the country.
- The source does not state the precise date the rescue operation took place.
- The source does not identify which security forces or agencies carried out the rescue operation.
- The source does not state how the remaining roughly 145 people freed beyond the 163 hospital patients were recovered or where they were taken.
- The source does not state whether any ransom was paid or negotiations were conducted prior to the rescue.
- The source does not state the current security or legal status of the suspected jihadists responsible for the attack on Woro.
- The source does not provide the total number of people originally abducted from Woro or the combined total from all affected villages.
Read the original at Africanews